Press photographers were reportedly barred from Pentagon press briefings after Pete Hegseth‘s staff became irked over unflattering photos of the defense secretary. The office of the notoriously vain Cabinet member — a former Fox News host who had a hair and makeup studio built in the Pentagon shortly after being confirmed — should probably have more important things on his mind, chiefly the war in Iran, and, perhaps, the elementary school there that the United States appears to have bombed.
According to a Wednesday report from The Washington Post, press pool photographers were banned from briefings on March 4 and March 10 after taking and publishing what sources described as “unflattering” images of Hegseth. The Post noted that the White House had declined to comment on the decision to exclude the photographers. The White House took exception, with Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly sharing an email reply to the publication with an off-topic quip over the newspaper’s recent layoff of more than 300 journalists, but no actual response to the Post’s question about the concern over Hegseth’s image.
The National Press Club responded on Wednesday, with President Mark Schoeff Jr. writing that the Pentagon’s decision “is deeply troubling and runs counter to the fundamental principles of transparency in a democratic society,” adding that “when the government decides which images the public is allowed to see, transparency is replaced by control.” PEN America also responded, calling the decision to bar photographers a “petty act of retaliation.”
62 Comments
dephyre@lemmy.world · 122 pts · 144d
giantripdrop@piefed.social · 11 pts · 144d
GreenBeanMachine@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 144d
hancock@retrolemmy.com · 10 pts · 144d
Cmon man, dont insult my boy harvey like that.
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 144d
But can we trust him?
dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 143d
I see where you're going here but at least Dent had a good side to start with.
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 144d
A pocket square without a tie? At least he buttoned his jacket while standing.
FUCKING_CUNO@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 86 pts · 144d
Quit lookin so dumb than
MushuChupacabra@piefed.world · 64 pts · 144d
What a loser.
JoMiran@lemmy.ml · 62 pts · 144d
OK, but why male models?
blimthepixie@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 50 pts · 144d
Surely this is a fast track way of getting people to only take unflattering photos of you
renegadespork@lemmy.jelliefrontier.net · 45 pts · 144d
Oh this is definitely getting Streisand Effected.
Ghostie@lemmy.zip · 32 pts · 144d
KnitWit@lemmy.world · 28 pts · 144d
The weird thing is they weren’t even bad pictures of him. Like, he looks like a douchebag who would use terms like ‘warfighter’ instead of just saying soldier, but the photos were just him. It’s not like the Vanity Fair photos that purposefully focused on the lip injection wounds, etc.
thebestaquaman@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 144d
It's not about the pictures. I honestly think this is just an excuse to get rid of journalists, and a method for hammering home the point that "journalists bad. news fake." I'm not even sure he's actually seen the pictures I question.
With that said, I wouldn't put it past him to actually be so vain that it is really about the pictures. However I think it's more likely that he would have done something like this anyway, and just picked an excuse.
KnitWit@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 144d
I think it’s a form of loyalty test for them for sure, but also I really do think it comes it down to him being that vain. One of the first things he did after confirmation was have a makeup studio installed. Guarantee an hour or more of his day is spent in front of a mirror, every day.
Armchair psychologist: Things aren’t going as planned in Iran, and he feels like he looks like a fool for it, so he’s lashing out and attacking the media for making him look bad.
limelight79@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 144d
Not surprising, considering his previous job was a talking head on Fox or something like that. Which, in what's left of Trump's mind, makes him totally qualified to be the Secretary of Defense.
robocall@lemmy.world · 23 pts · 144d
Snowflake
Etterra@discuss.online · 22 pts · 144d
For somebody acting as violently masculine as possible he sure is a pussy-ass bitch.
dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 143d
You may not like it, but this is what peak (toxic) male performance looks like.
I'm reminded of another observation I read online, some time ago. To paraphrase:
ayyy@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 143d
So is literally everyone who makes gender their personality.
Fedizen@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 143d
Streisand Effect is going to hit him like a bus.
phutatorius@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 142d
It'd be nicer if a bus hit him like a bus.
foggy@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 144d
This is how you get the worst pictures of yourself published ad nauseam.
CileTheSane@lemmy.ca · 17 pts · 143d
What a weak, fragile man.
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 143d
Boy, actually. At least thats his maturity level
Entertainmeonly@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 14 pts · 144d
Don't be a drag just be a queen.
Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works · 14 pts · 144d
This guy really loves war
GratefullyGodless@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 144d
And hair gel.
phutatorius@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 142d
I wonder if Hegseth and Newsom exchange grooming tips?
Jaybird@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 144d
5too@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 144d
There's flattering photos of him?
More seriously, what photos is he even objecting to?
wesdym@mastodon.social · 1 pts · 143d
@5too I had to have that sorted out for me, too, and I'll save you the effort: It's ones where he looks MORE like an ass than usual. It's not a huge difference or sharp distinction. Ones that he feels don't match his obsessively contrived image.
But to most of us, they look like all the others, just like you say. To you and me, he looks like a complete ass-clown all the time, no matter what, and any difference is just a matter of degree, and not very great.
IAmYouButYouDontKnowYet@reddthat.com · 12 pts · 144d
Dude looks like a twink fratboys bleached asshole.
homes@piefed.world · 24 pts · 144d
He’s nowhere near that pretty
IAmYouButYouDontKnowYet@reddthat.com · 2 pts · 144d
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 12 pts · 144d
Then why don't I want to stick my dick in him? 🤔
frustrated_phagocytosis@fedia.io · 12 pts · 144d
They should go back and pick even worse shots to update the stories with, make them bigger and add ugly photos where none were before
chaotic_ugly@lemmy.zip · 11 pts · 144d
To be fair, this picture was on the front page here for 3 or 4 days and was clearly chosen in bad faith by the outlet because Nazi.
Not saying I don't want him to walk in front of a moving bus, but everyone knows for a fact at this point that this administration will weaponize anything they can. The Irish Star should know better, but a Nazi salute that wasn't gets clicks so here we are.
Ibisalt@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 143d
Fascists being fascists, pictured as fascists. It isn’t a bad picture if it tells the story right. But I see your point. I’m just not sure if it’s right to give in and be nice just because the far right likes to control the narrative. We should call their bullshit for what it is.
Edit: Someone was a jerk about writing errors, so i tried to fix them. Thank you fellow human for calling me out. I am a better person now and the world got a little bit brighter.
chaotic_ugly@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 143d
You might have a point. Personally I go out of my way to make sure that people think I'm arguing in good faith. I think the absolute worst thing is to give someone, especially someone who is one the fence, any reason to think I'm just like the people he's moving away from. Some of them have been told that everything not originating from Trump-approved media is Fake News, and this picture of Hegseth is definitely fake news.
wesdym@mastodon.social · -1 pts · 143d
Ibisalt@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 143d
Edit: At first, I wanted to justify myself and argue. But after writing my response, I’ve decided that I’m just not going to engage in this argument. Thank you for your feedback, I’ll take it as an opportunity to improve myself.
phutatorius@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 142d
Hegseth is a brainless yapping chihuahua on a short leash, but he's been in front of cameras a long time, so should know to control his gestures, unless it's some Dr Stragelove repressed reflex.
And even if the photo doesn't show an intentional Bellamy, it still reflects a truth about Hegseth's inner state, and if he doesn't like it, he can mumble our collective grundle.
circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org · 11 pts · 144d
His skin would clear up if he stopped drinking.
tempest@lemmy.ca · 11 pts · 144d
I wouldn't want photos of me when I'm on a 3 day bender either
FuglyDuck@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 144d
3 day benders would be rookie numbers. He’s not gone off a bender since he got the job.
rosco385@lemmy.wtf · 10 pts · 143d
Petey's problem is that he's a world class air-dicker.
Fedizen@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 143d
He does do a bit of air-dicking
::: spoiler spoiler
:::
phutatorius@lemmy.zip · 10 pts · 144d
He wouldn't look like such a clown if he didn't put that grease on his hair like some kind of aspiring guido.
k0e3@lemmy.ca · 9 pts · 144d
I wanna see ugly photos and photoshops of him trending like we did with JD Vance.
SunshineJogger@feddit.org · 8 pts · 143d
I see a lot of potential here for the internet to have fun with
Marthirial@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 143d
That is exactly where the mind of brilliant commanders need to be in times of war.
jaemo@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 144d
Is it worth chiming in that I've personally never seen any image or facsimile of that thing that is in any way, shape, or form flattering to the subject matter? If I was making a catalogue of "shammies one would wash one's car with" its complexion might make an appearance in the appendix but otherwise nah. No redeeming value from a photographic stance, or, frankly, from any other point of view really.
He's not much good to humanity alive.
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 144d
Speaking as a bald man, I would like to have his hair. For bonus points, it would be kinda fun to watch it being taken from him.
jaemo@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 143d
For some reason your comment reminded me of that ol' Tim Robinson ditty.
Also wouldn't his hair be like... permanently greasy? The only guy who's hair might be worse (other than trump but that's not hair as much as it is a region of spacetime that has a few more ppm of alpha helix protein than the hard vacuum) is Nutlick now that he has that gangsta-ass mullet.
webp@mander.xyz · 6 pts · 144d
His face unflatters itself.
cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 144d
Everyone in the trump administration has huge ego problems.
frostysauce@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 143d
It's the influencer administration.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 144d
Or else the man child cries.
dan69@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 144d
This photos aren’t relevant, only photos I care about the EPSTEIN photos!
RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 143d
This is untrue, and they'd know this if they actually looked at the photos, which are perfectly normal, not bad photos. Hegseth is simply insane.
AlexLost@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 143d
Maybe you shouldn't get in front of a crowd if you can't handle the attention. You know how you spend your entire life trying to make your enemies look bad? Samesies!!
quick_snail@feddit.nl · 2 pts · 144d
South Park nailed it
Greyghoster@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 144d
Trump picked him because he was pretty and a suck up. That probably means he is vain as well.
ef9357@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 144d
He looks like a constipated troll. The camera ain’t lying.
flop_leash_973@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 144d
Secretary of Defense(wAr) focusing on the important matters of his position as usual I see.